Asia’s first major champion Yang Yong-eun, world No. 8 Adam Scott and 2011 Open Championship winner Darren Clarke are set to clash in Korea in the country’s biggest golf tournament later this month.Marking its fifth year, the 2012 Ballantine’s Championship will be held at Blackstone Golf Club, Icheon, April 26 to 29. Also joining the lineup will be last year’s runner-up Miguel Angel Jimenez and his Ryder Cup teammate, Ian Poulter. The two have won an impressive 29 European Tour titles between th

DETROIT (AP) ― Now in his fourth season, Rick Porcello has a lot of experience for a 23-year-old.Detroit hopes he’s finally ready to become one of the game’s elite pitchers.Porcello threw seven solid innings on a snowy afternoon at Comerica Park, and Detroit’s powerful offense finally broke through in the eighth Tuesday to give the Tigers a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Miguel Cabrera doubled and scored on Prince Fielder’s single, part of a decisive three-run rally.Porcello allowed two runs a

AUGUSTA, Georgia (AP) ― Tiger Woods couldn’t see the green through the trees, though that was only a minor obstacle. He choked up on a 5-wood and played a sweeping draw around the pines, over the water and onto the back of the green.As he approached the Sarazen Bridge to the 15th green Wednesday, the grandstand rumbled when fans suddenly rose in unison to see him walk by. Some of them held cameras as high as they could, clicked and hoped for the best.Woods is worth watching at the Masters for al

AUGUSTA, Georgia (AP) ― Get ready for a “birdie-fest” at Augusta National.Three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson said the course he’s loved and respected for decades is not yet its fearsome, soul-destroying self ― and that has him worried.“It seems that some of the planning I have made may go by the wayside,” Mickelson said Tuesday. “As soft as the golf course is, you can fire at a lot of the pins.”That means a host of fearless, 20-somethings will whack away in the fairways with little concern

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (AP) ― Yoo Sun-young won the Kraft Nabisco Championship with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday, earning her first major title after Kim In-kyung missed a 1-foot putt on the final hole of regulation.Yoo won the LPGA Tour’s first major of the season, but she got to make the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond only after Kim’s mind-boggling miss on the same green minutes earlier.Yoo and Kim finished at 9 under, but Kim could have all but wrapped up he

Sun Young Yoo birdied the first playoff hole to win the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship on Sunday after I.K. Kim missed a one-foot putt for the win on the final hole of regulation. Yoo Sun-young (AFP-Yonhap News)Yoo was steady down the stretch in the first women's major championship of 2012, but it was only Kim's heartbreaking miss that made her playoff triumph possible.Both South Koreans carded f

HUMBLE, Texas (AP) ― Louis Oosthuizen shot his second straight 6-under 66 on Saturday to reach 17 under and take a two-shot lead over Hunter Mahan after the third round of the Houston Open.The 29-year-old South African shook off two early bogeys on a sunny, windy afternoon at Redstone. He reeled off four birdies in a row on the back nine to surge ahead.“It’s a great leaderboard behind me,” Oosthuizen said. “It’s going to be tough, but I feel like I’m ready for it.”Mahan had a 65, rebounding from

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (AP) ― Amy Yang shot a 6-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead over a revitalized Lindsey Wright in Thursday’s opening round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.Yani Tseng was third at 68, ending the world’s top-ranked player’s streak of eight consecutive rounds with the lead. The five-time major champion has won two straight tournaments and three of five this season, while Yang and Wright have never won on the LPGA Tour.The 22-year-old Yang made five birdies in seven holes

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) ― Tiger Woods finally brought the buzz back to the very thing that made him famous ― winning.It was his first PGA Tour victory since a sex scandal at the end of 2009 led to one of the greatest downfalls in sports. And with the Masters only two weeks away, Woods looks more capable of ever than resuming his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus in the majors.Woods closed with a 2-under 70 for a five-shot win over Graeme McDowell.The question two weeks ago was when he could play again. Now

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) ― One swing cost Tiger Woods a comfortable lead at Bay Hill. All that mattered to him was his name atop the leaderboard at the end of the day, leaving him one round away from winning on the PGA Tour for the first time in 30 months.If anything, Saturday showed that it won’t be easy in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.In two holes, Woods went from a four-shot lead to briefly tied with Graeme McDowell after a bizarre chain of events that featured a young man passing out and a wo

CARLSBAD, California (AP) ― Top-ranked Yani Tseng shot a 5-under 67 on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead with Oh Ji-young in the Kia Classic.Tseng finished with a birdie on the par-4 ninth after dropping a stroke on the par-3 eighth.The 23-year-old Taiwanese star won the LPGA Founders Cup on Sunday in Phoenix for her 14th LPGA Tour title and second in four events this year. She led the tour last season with seven victories ― including major victories in the LPGA Championship and Women

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) ― Charlie Wi felt a lot better walking off the golf course compared with his last round.So did Tiger Woods.Coming off a final round at Innisbrook in which he made a 13 on one hole, Wi hit an 8-iron over the water to 6 feet for birdie on the 18th for a 6-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Jason Dufner in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.It’s the fourth time Dufner has been atop the leaderboard after a round during the Florida swing ― except that none of those rounds